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After a two-decade phase-in period, this week marks full implementation of federal rules requiring new aircraft to incorporate safety features designed to help passengers survive a crash at 16 times the force of gravity. As a result of the regulation, seat belt manufacturer AmSafe has seen growing demand for its $1,200 airbags, currently found in about 1% of seats on commercial airliners. The airbags are credited with saving about 14 lives on general-aviation aircraft, though none has deployed on a commercial flight.

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After a two-decade phase-in period, this week marks full implementation of federal rules requiring new aircraft to incorporate safety features designed to help passengers survive a crash at 16 times the force of gravity. As a result of the regulation, seat belt manufacturer AmSafe has seen growing demand for its $1,200 airbags, currently found in about 1% of seats on commercial airliners. The airbags are credited with saving about 14 lives on general-aviation aircraft, though none has yet deployed on a commercial flight.

Southwest Airlines was disappointed to lose out in the bidding for bankrupt Frontier Airlines, but "all things considered, things worked out very, very well," says CEO Gary Kelly. Frontier's fleet would have presented an integration challenge, Kelly notes, promising that his company will continue its rapid expansion in Denver even without the Denver-based airline.

If you don't want your colleagues to consider you part of their information-overload problem, don't send someone an e-mail unless you know it's valuable to the recipient, Chandra Clarke writes. Also, make sure your written reports are well crafted and ask a qualified person to review your efforts, she writes.

European Union regulators have raised concerns that the proposed alliance among British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia Lineas Aereas de Espana may violate antitrust measures. British Airways said the airline group wouldn't dominate trans-Atlantic markets. A Deutsche Bank analyst said the regulator's investigation into the alliance appears "ominous," and that the U.S. Justice Department also has doubts about the tie-up.

American Airlines and British Airways may have to give up airport slots to win EU approval of their trans-Atlantic alliance, according to a British media report. European regulators reportedly fear "appreciable competitive harm" on seven routes between Europe and the U.S., and the airlines may be required to transfer slots to competitors to assure continued competition.